Task Force is Established to Investigate Boro Park Vandalism

November 15, 1985

NEW YORK (Nov. 14)

The New York Police Department has established a special task force to investigate the smashing last weekend of the windows of 13 Jewish-owned or Jewish-identified stores in Boro Park, the Jewish Community Relations Council announced today. The task force, which will work exclusively on the case around the clock, will draw detectives from the Bias Squad and from Brooklyn South, where it will be headquartered.

At the same time, the JCRC announced it is offering a $4,000 award for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators of the crime. This supplements the $1,000 award posted by Assembly man Dov Hilkind, who represents the Boro Park district, and the 13th Street Merchants Association’s president, Mendy Kleinand vice president, Joseph Goldstein. The vandalism occurred along a 10-block stretch of that avenue, the neighborhood’s main shopping center.

Hilkind, a Boro Park resident, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this week that he was convinced the vandalism was “well planned” and ” methodical.” He said he agreed with the theory that the vandalism may have been timed to coincide with the 47th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass pogrom in Germany the night of November 8-9, 1938.